‘Lessons Must Be Learnt’ From Wall Collapse Tragedy

An injury specialist at Irwin Mitchell has called for every effort to be made to ensure the death of a toddler, killed when a boundary wall collapsed onto him, is not repeated.

Camden Council has been fined £72,000 and ordered to pay costs in relation to the case of two-year-old Saurav Ghai, who was with a childminder when the incident occurred in 2007.

Both were taken to hospital for treatment on their injuries but the youngster died a short time afterwards. The local authority, which was responsible for maintaining the wall, pleaded guilty to a safety breach.

Irwin Mitchell regularly provides advice and support to those injured as a result of someone else’s negligence or errors.

Katrina Elsey, who specialises in public liability claims of this kind, said: “One of the most painful aspects of this terrible tragedy is that the incident was completely avoidable.

“Councils and other organisations cannot afford to ignore their responsibilities in maintaining items in use in public spaces as, like this case shows, there could be serious consequences.

“I urge all organisations to take a close look at maintenance schedules to ensure they are working in a manner which puts the public at as little risk as possible. Hopefully this will mean that no one else suffers from the same mistakes again.”